or Team McCain tonight. It's just media hype. Here's the headline from
ABCNews.com
The blog post even sounds dire:
ABC News' George Stephanopoulos reports: Stakes are high for
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin going into tonight's vice presidential debate
with Sen. Joe Biden, D-Dela., with the latest poll finding she has
become a drag on the Republican ticket.
Any mistake or gaffe by Palin could be fatal with a new poll finding
voters are now questioning their commitment to Republican
presidential candidate John McCain because of her.
Let me just put bluntly: It's all media crap! Honestly, it is. It's not do or die
for Palin or McCain, for that matter. They just want to hype up the debate.
Let's play out the worst scenario. Let's say that she is a disaster tonight,
which I don't think she will be. (I've seen video of her debates while running
for Governor of Alaska, she did very well.) Let's say she blanks like she did in the
Katie Couric interview. All McCain has to do remind people that he's running
for President and not Palin. Turn the focus back on him. Eventually the press
will need to drop the Palin stuff because it would get old and they have a short
attention span. There is absolutely no need for Palin to be in the headlines two
weeks from now. The VP debate will be done and over. If the press still has
Palin as top news two weeks from now then it just more evidence how they are
advocating for Sen. Obama. People would get the sense that the press is out to
destroy Sen. McCain and really aren't concerned about the Palin's "experience"
and "qualifications" because they wouldn't be obsessing over it for a month and it
will backfire.
Team McCain also helped themselves today by noting that plenty of gaffes have
been made by Biden. McCain should call out the press in their double standards.
A Republican can't slip up but the Democrats can make mistakes.
Point blank: McCain needs to put bring the spotlight back on him. Doing very
well in the next two presidential debates will help that. I was very impressed with
McCain's last debate performance so I'm sure he will he'll do well in the next two.
Just a reminder to the media: You don't get to declare an election over. The American
people decide with their votes who the winners and losers are in November. You
don't get to pull the lever for me, although I know you would like to.